Indeed, to take one example, Holy Fathers of recent times, such as Elder Ambrose of Optina, teach that the beings contacted at spiritistic seances are demons rather than the spirits of the dead; and those who have thoroughly investigated the phenomena of spiritism, if they have any Christian standard of judgment at all, have come to the same conclusion (see, for example, Simon A. Blackmore, S.J., Spiritism: Facts and Frauds, Benziger Bros., New York, 1924).
Thus, we need not doubt that the saints actually appear to the righteous at death, as is described in many Lives of Saints. To ordinary sinners, on the other hand, there are often apparitions of relatives, friends, or “gods” which correspond to what the dying either expect or are prepared to see. The exact nature of these latter apparitions it is probably impossible to define; they are certainly not mere hallucinations, but seem to be a part of the natural experience of death, a sign to the dying person (as it were) that he is about to enter a new realm where the laws of ordinary material reality no longer hold. There is nothing very extraordinary about this experience, which seems to hold constant for different times, places, and religions.
The experience of “meeting with others” commonly occurs just before death, and is not to be confused with the rather different meeting we will now describe: that with the “being of light.
3. The “Being of Light”
This experience Dr. Moody describes as “perhaps the most incredible common element in the accounts I have studied, and certainly the element which has the most profound effect upon the individual” (Life After Life, p. 45). Most people describe this experience as the appearance of a light which rapidly increases in brightness; and all recognize it as some kind of personal being, filled with warmth and love, to whom the newly-deceased is drawn by a kind of magnetic attraction. The identification of this being seems to depend on one’s religious background; in itself it has no recognizable form. Some call it “Christ,” others call it an “angel”; all seem to understand that it is a being sent from somewhere to guide them. Here are some accounts of this experience:
“I heard the doctors say that I was dead, and that’s when I began to feel as though I were tumbling, actually kind of floating.... Everything was black, except that, way off from me, I could see this light. It was a very, very brilliant light, but not too large at first. It grew larger as I came nearer and nearer to it” (p. 48).
After another person died he felt himself floating “up into this pure crystal clear light.... It’s not any kind of light you can describe on earth. I didn’t actually see a person in this light, and yet it has a special identity, it definitely does. It is a light of perfect understanding and perfect love” (p. 48).
“I was out of my body, there’s no doubt about it, because I could see my own body there on the operating room table. My soul was out! All this made me feel very bad at first, but then, this really bright light came. It did seem that it was a little dim at first, but then it was this huge beam.... At first, when the light came, I wasn’t sure what was happening, but then it asked, it kind of asked me if I was ready to die” (p. 48).
Almost always this being begins to communicate with the newly-deceased (more by a kind of “thought-transference” than by spoken words); what he “says” to them is always the same thing, which is interpreted by those who experience it as “Are you prepared to die?” or “What have you done with your life to show me?” (p. 47). Sometimes also, in connection with this being, the dying person sees a kind of flashback of the past events of his life. All emphasize, however, that this being in no way offers any “judgment” of their lives or actions; he merely provokes them to reflect on their lives.
Drs. Osis and Haraldsson have also noted some experiences of such a being in their studies, remarking that the experience of light is “a typical quality of other-worldly visitors” (p. 38) and preferring to follow Dr. Moody in calling the beings seen or felt in this light simply as “figures of light” rather than the spiritual beings and deities the dying often identify them as.
Who — or what — are these “beings of light”?
Many call these beings “angels,” and point to their positive qualities: they are beings of “light,” are full of “love and understanding,” and inculcate the idea of “responsibility” for one’s life. But the angels known to Orthodox Christian experience are very much more definite, both in appearance and in function, than these “beings of light.” In order to understand this, and to begin to see what these “beings of light” may be, it will be necessary here to set forth the Orthodox Christian doctrine of angels, and then to examine, in particular, the nature of the guiding angels of the afterlife.
CHAPTER TWO
The Orthodox Doctrine of Angels
We know from the words of Christ Himself that the soul is met at death by angels. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22).
Concerning the form in which angels appear, we know also from the Gospeclass="underline" An angel of the Lord (whose) appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white as snow (Matt. 28:2-3); a young man arrayed in a white robe (Mark 16:5); two men in dazzling apparel (Luke 24:4); two angels in white (John 20:12). Throughout Christian history, the manifestations of angels have always been in this same form of dazzling youths arrayed in white. The iconographic tradition of the appearance of angels has also been consistent throughout the centuries, depicting just such dazzling youths (often with wings, which of course are a symbolic feature not usually seen in angelic apparitions); and the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 decreed that angels should always be portrayed only in this way, as men. The “cupids” of the Western art of the Renaissance and later periods are pagan in inspiration and have nothing to do with true angels.